


Cut

by Way_too_involved



Series: Langst Prompts [10]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adam is mentioned, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Crying, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Homesick Lance (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, POV Shiro (Voltron), Protective Shiro (Voltron), Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Sorry Not Sorry, a what if fic, shklance - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 18:40:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16203362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Way_too_involved/pseuds/Way_too_involved
Summary: The paladins were back on earth and they had to get to those six bases.Miracles don't happen in the real world. No one was lucky enough to get a last minute rescue... this was the real world.





	Cut

Lance’s reunion with his family was so pure to the point that Shiro was afraid of his own envy. He secretly hoped for Adam’s presence, though they were not together anymore, to welcome him back to his home planet instead of it being Iverson. Keith was standing next to him smiling fondly at the Cuban boy. Sadness plagued his eyes if you knew where to look but was ultimately completely drowned with fondness towards their boyfriend.

Lance had spoken for hours on end about his family and how much he missed them. The other two males having come from a much smaller families and could do nothing to relate but gladly offered an ear to their third partner. Looking at him now, how much his family cried over their lost member and how much emotion was displayed infront of them, they were thanking the heavens for every second Lance was able to avoid death.

The Sendak incident, the Sven incident, the… Omega Shield incident.

There had been way too many times where it seemed like Lance was cursed to get hurt, which made their anxiety over their lover’s possible demise weigh over them, keeping them up at night. They’ve talked about it, when Lance would have his headphones on and loud to calm his thoughts and soothe him to sleep when not even Shiro and Keith can help, on what they would do or how they would react. How the universe was intent on throwing hardships at Lance every step of the way.

They could never fully imagine.

Not even during the omega shield incident, neither of them were really there. They found out long after it happened and were always soothed by Lance that he was fine and that it didn’t have any lasting effect on him. Of course, the two black paladins still insisted he took things slower than usual and not jump into things head on. Keith’s two years of maturity trumping Lance’s argument that hot-headedness was Keith’s thing.

After Hunk settled in his given room, Pidge left with her family and the Alteans were given their own double suite. Shiro asked commander about his old quarters considering he used to be a high ranking pilot.

“The one you shared with Captain Adam.” Iverson looked at Shiro with unreadable eyes. He thought he saw sadness but dismissed it as a trick of lighting.

“Yeah… I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t mind if I crashed with him for a while. It was my apartment too.”

The older male looked at the other two males in the room before training his gaze back at Shiro.

“You might want to sit down for this.”

Keith and Lance each stood next to a shoulder showing their full support to their partner no matter what. After Iverson delivered the news, Shiro stared at his hands for a few seconds before droplets of salty tears fell, staining his pants. He didn’t realize he was crying until his upper knee area was completely soaked. Lance sat down next to Shiro and held him into his chest as sobs rattled his entire body.

Despair and hopeless shocked his system. He knew this was a military base and death was inevitable as someone who signed up for this. But he never thought it would be so soon for his ex-lover. It brought back his small pinches of fear towards his current lovers, so he reached for Keith and brought him down to their level and held him close. He wanted to be surrounded by as much of them as possible. He needed to feel their heartbeats against him, even if faint. He will do whatever he can to keep them safe.

* * *

 

After deciding to split up for the 6 bases, the Voltron team and MFE pilots and Shiro stood to say their final thoughts to each other.

“Everyone keep your coms ready and open.” Shiro urged the younger pilots. “I want to be able to hear everything and have the ability to talk to you no matter what, okay?”

A series of affirmatives rounded from everyone.

“So here is the full plan, again.” Shiro spent the next ten minutes revising the details to make sure things will go as smoothly as possible. He couldn’t afford mistakes. These were the lives of his friends and lovers, not just his colleagues.

“Lastly, Lance.” Grey eyes met striking blue. “You and Veronica will go the one closest to here. She will drive you while you try to connect with Red.”

“Do I have to go with Veronica?” Lance said, his voice etching with concern and worry. Shiro understood what he must be going through. Lance had told them of his worries about his sister being a part of this, even though she was a Garrison officer long before he left Earth in the first place.

“Calm down, Lancelot!” She said smiling at her younger brother. Their dynamic was always so light-hearted but never lacked the serious undertone. They both had mad respect for the other’s abilities in their specific forts.

“You can’t blame me for worrying.” Lance said defensively.

“I don’t. It’s sweet, but misplaced. We’ll be fine. Besides, according to my calculations, the other bases have a much higher chance of being attacked due to the higher concentration of Galra camps surrounding them. So, this is going to be easy-peasy.”

Shiro stepped forward and put his hand of Lance’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry. I believe in you.”

Worry lines smoothed on his tanned face as he broke into a grin. Lance had shared with him what the clone had done and said to him. His self-esteem was shot to the ground and he was in a bad mental place. Realizing Shiro was dead the whole time also gave him abandonment issues as he didn’t understand why Keith had left him for the Blade – which he later said was due to his extremely poor hold on his emotions and believed that way he was helping Lance after their talk - and Shiro retuned with a colder, meaner attitude with no real explanation. He was extremely lonely and left with his thoughts. It didn’t end well.

It took the whole ride back to Earth to ease his mind and try to fix what was broken between them. It worked for the most part.

They separated into their designated jets and car and took off.

Lance and Veronica were bickering about an old prank they played a long time ago, James and Keith were adding jabs to see which one of the Cubans could actually be right and Pidge and Hunk were laughing at everything as they knew what actually happened in that event, especially Hunk as he was there. Allura kept asking for clarifications on certain phrases the siblings were using and were causing all this laughter; She wanted to take part as much as possible.

Shiro smiled fondly at their images on his screen. They were the ones from back in the Garrison days, except for Allura who took a fast image before the mission to add her to the database. Keith’s scar-less face and Lance’s younger, softer features next to their frequencies was sending butterflies down his stomach as if he was fifteen again.

He missed this primal, innocent feeling too much sometimes.

He signalled the Paladins when it was time for them to reach out for their lions. Keith and Allura gave their confirmations at the same time, followed by Hunk and Pidge a few minutes later.

“Lance. Status?”

“Red’s not responding to me.”

Shiro’s wide eyes stared at the screen.

“What do you mean, he’s not responding? Are you concentrating?”

“I am!”

“Well, keep trying!”

He ran to Coran’s screen to make sure of the surroundings of their car. He was so dependant that the Lions will respond to the Paladins that he didn’t plan for back up in case they don’t respond.

The blinking light of an incoming ship was damning.

“Veronica, you have incoming. 6 o’clock.”

He heard her confirmation before he moved to Iverson demanding to know the fastest squad he could send in their direction.

A pained grunt filled his ears and then dual screamed before complete silence. Everyone aboard the Atlas stared in horror at the screen showing the images. Shiro couldn’t tear his eyes from Lance’s.

“Lance. Lance, come in.”

He could faintly hear the other’s panic induced worried yells on the coms, but the blood pounding in his ears was getting too much. His brain filtered only Keith’s voice.

“Shiro did his coms cut?”

It took him a minute before he found his voice again.

“No, he is still online.”

“Will I be able to make it in time?!”

Shiro didn’t comprehend what Keith had said before Iverson was yelling at him to not change his location.

“We have to strike the bases at the same time, anyways. If Lance can’t strike his, then what’s the point of this?” Keith yelled back.

“Keith. Stay where you are. We have to believe Lance is okay.” Shiro said calmly struggling to hide the internal panic from his voice.

A familiar groan draws his attention.

“Lance!”

“Yeah... I’m here.”

Shiro released a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Shiro, Veronica’s hurt.” Lance’s voice was too small to come out of the loud Cuban.

“Check on her first.”

Soldiers around Shiro looked at him. He knew asking a solider to check on his teammate before asking for a full status report was wrong. But he also knew Lance. If he asked him to put anything before his family, and having to follow the order since Shiro is his superior, Lance would never forgive him.

“She’s… She’s breathing.”

“That’s good. Now, give me a status report.”

“The car is in compete ruins, we are approximately 6.3 miles away from destination, Veronica… she’s bleeding from her forehead and breathing shallowly.”

“And you?”

“Me?” it seemed to take him a while to answer. “I have a twisted-

Lance didn’t get to finish his sentence before he yelped loudly as he was caught by surprise by whatever was around him.

“Coran?”

“There is not a thing on our radars.”

“Lance talk to me.”

“Galra… Ship.” Lance said between pained pants. A thunderous, roaring hit way too close to Lance.

“Lance try to get out of there!!”

“I am on my way.” Keith’s voice came out of nowhere. Where the hell was Red? He wanted to tell Keith to stay where he was for the mission, but couldn’t.  He wanted him to reach Lance and make sure their partner was okay, even if he was here… helpless. Again.

Another mechanical noise made it way, Lance was close to their ruined car and was trying to start it despite his previous report. A resounding metal on metal clunk goes on for some time before deafening silence.

“Lance…” Shiro’s voice was unsure and small.

“Baby…” His eye widened at the raw emotion in his voice. “Veronica is under… the bent hood of the car… she is probably concussed so get her medical attention straight away, okay?”

A tear makes its way down. Lance can’t give up. He can’t…

“I am sorry I couldn’t do more… I am sorry I didn’t finish this mission, it was so so simple.” Shiro’s hands were shaking distractingly. His vision was starting to blur. Lance’s helplessness mirrored Shiro’s too much. Lance was not allowed to feel this helpless. He was powerful and loud and too big of a soul to be reduced to… this.

“LANCE! I AM ON THE WAY, PLEASE, BABY DON’T DO ANYTHING”

The background noise was getting progressively louder than Keith’s shouts. The Galra ship was getting closer. The ex-black paladin heard the charging sound of Lance’s blaster and knew he was preparing.

An ear splitting blast hit close to Lance causing a static in his coms. He barely heard Lance groan before another hit his proximity again. and again. Fire was raining on Lance and he couldn’t even get a visual on the situation.

He couldn’t decide whether that was good or bad.

A shocked gasp came from their communications before another shrill and then silence. Awful, deafening, ear splitting silence. Everyone seemed to be holding their breaths. Eyes stared at the screen, at the changed colour infront of them.

Red.

Where Lance’s bright and colourful image was, a red aura was upon it. Shiro was not oblivious or stupid; he knew what it meant. But never… in the past years would he have ever thought that he would lose Lance _after_ reaching Earth. It seemed like a cruel joke the universe was playing on him.

The fast moving blinking dot indicating Black stopped on the screen.

“Please don’t… he can’t…”

And it might have been the broken sound in Keith’s voice that released him from his shocked state; he was on the ground, on his knees, seconds later. His hands pulling at his hair as his physically felt himself lose part of his heart. The cracks of his mind were expanding, oozing away his sanity.

They were too late.

No amount of late night talks could have ever prepared him and Keith for the real thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Man i haven't written in a whiiile 
> 
> Kudos/comments are free and highly highly appreciated.
> 
> @no-i-didnt-notice-im-short on tumblr :)


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